Hey guys...I'm selling a truck and a guy wants to put his H&R M1 Garand in on the deal.

I don't know much about M1G's and was wondering what I should offer him off the price of my truck.

He says it's a Korean (?) H&R and he thinks its a 1951. He sent me a pic of it, then brought it with him when he came to look at the truck. I snapped a couple pics of the Serial # behind the rear sight and one of the numbers on the top of the chamber. Here's the pics...

The stock has very small nics all over, but not bad at all really. I didn't see any brass pins to indicate repair of the stock. The breech looked like it had very sharp edges and the muzzle crown looked well defined. It had a little surface rust on the inside the chamber on the side to the right of the breech, but looked like it'd be nothing to clean it up...Like it has been sitting for awhile.

I'd really like to know what it is. He said if he had to replace it, it would cost him about $1300. Co-incidentally, I was thinking $700 would be fair for just about any M1G in good shape...So if he's right, I'm thinking $1,000 would be fair?

Thanks for any help you guys might provide.

jjfuller1

08-25-2011 02:17 AM

i would say five to six hundred... you can get a shootable m1 thru the cmp for abotu five hundred

Mud4Brains

08-25-2011 02:25 AM

I've heard those can be "Franken-Guns" that have been cannibalized from a bunch of different guns. I know GOOD M1's start at about $700. I've heard if you've got a pre-war in great conditition, the sky very well could be the limit.

I guess I'm trying to figure out if anybody knows how to track the numbers to see if it's one of those $500 Franken-Guns or something more.

JonM

08-25-2011 02:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mud4Brains
(Post 569350)

I've heard those can be "Franken-Guns" that have been cannibalized from a bunch of different guns. I know GOOD M1's start at about $700. I've heard if you've got a pre-war in great conditition, the sky very well could be the limit.

I guess I'm trying to figure out if anybody knows how to track the numbers to see if it's one of those $500 Franken-Guns or something more.

based on serial number its a hr from 53-54 the number on the bolt is the drawing number. the number below is the heat lot number detailing the type of heat hardening it was given. the number is actually S-B7O its not a zero but the letter "O".

the drawing number says the bolt is a ww2 bolt from what i could find.

the barrel date code and drawing number off the bottom of the trigger pack would give more info.

it appears solely from the pics you have there it is a franken gun. its not in very good shape either.

Mud4Brains

08-25-2011 02:40 AM

Sounds good Jon! I'll probably either kick the gun out of the deal or offer much much less.

Mud4Brains

08-25-2011 02:53 AM

FWIW...I found this link here that tells everything one would want to know about identifying an M1.

I can tell that H&R made this gun 1953 to 1954...probably '54 with the lateness of the SN.

The draw says the bolt was made between Feb 1942 and March of 1944.

The SB7O number further narrows it to November of 1943.

Serial numbers for this bolt SHOULD be between 467,737 and 2,634,316.

So, yes. You're definitely right. Franken-Gun.

LOL.

JonM

08-25-2011 03:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mud4Brains
(Post 569354)

Sounds good Jon! I'll probably either kick the gun out of the deal or offer much much less.

my personal opinion if its got rust in the chamber skip it. stock is prolly 60-80$ if its not cracked oprod is about 125$ if its not bent, reciever is maybe 175-200$ if its not cracked. gas cylinder is prolly scrap would have to be gauged barrel is almost certainly worthless with the rust problem.

its a project gun at best and will prolly need a ground up rebuild. personally i would be comfy offering 275 to 300 considering you might have to sink 400-600 in it to get it to shooting condition. thats factoring in labour.

just depends on the condition of the internals, gas system, oprod, reciever

for the price your looking at fixing it up you can get a really nice cmp garand without the hassles

Mud4Brains

08-25-2011 03:04 AM

Yeah, consider it kicked from the deal then. I wasn't really looking for one, but he offered it up and I'm always open to getting a new gun.

Good thing I checked it out here first! I almost shaved $1K off the price of my truck!

Thanks SOOOOOOO much!!!

Mud4Brains

09-08-2011 01:17 AM

Well fellas, just a quick update. I called the guy and told him what I learned and that I'd like to kick the gun from the deal as it wasn't worth that much and I knew he'd be insulted by a low offer for the gun.

I gave him a best price figure including the gun towards it at $250.

He took the deal!!! I also got about 200 rounds of 30-06 with it.

Got the gun home and everything looks really good, franken gun or not. There was no rust. What I mistook for rust was old grease that wiped right off. All the internals look brand new after breaking it down.

The barrel took about three days of pushing a brush and Hoppes #9 patches through it before I got through all the layers of black followed by copper fouling. She's clean as a whistle now. It looked like it had been shot, then put away for 10 years, then shot, then put away for another 10 years, and repeat about three or four times.

I've got all the stain stripped from the stock and I'm going to re-finish it. I saw one at a gun show last weekend where a guy used a mixture of walnut and cherry stain on one and it looked amazing.